A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21–25 kg (46–55 lb) for singles and 25–30 kg (55–66 lb) for doubles. Luge is also the name of an Olympic sport.
Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of the sled.
Venezuela sent a delegation to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy from 10–26 February 2006. This was the third time Venezuela had competed at a Winter Olympic Games. The Venezuelan delegation consisted of one luge athlete, Werner Hoeger. He finished 32nd in his only event, the men's singles.
Armin Zöggeler OMRI is a retired Italian luger and double Olympic champion. He is one of the most successful men in the sport, nicknamed Il Cannibale, for his notable series of victories, or The Iceblood Champion, for his always cold, rational approach to the races. Fellow luger Tucker West described Zöggeler as the sport's equivalent of Michael Jordan.
Mārtiņš Rubenis is a retired Latvian luger who competed between 1998 and 2014. He won the bronze medal at the men's singles event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, becoming the first Latvian to win a medal at the Winter Olympics and the only one from Latvia at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Following this he was chosen as Latvian Sportsman of the Year for 2006. He won his second bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi in the Team Relay event. In total he competed in five Olympics.
Wolfgang Linger is an Austrian retired luger who has competed internationally since 2000. As young children, he and his older brother Andreas learned to luge on a former Olympic luge track, and at age 14 began competing as a doubles team for the first time. Linger has won five medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with three golds and two bronzes. He also earned seven medals at the FIL European Luge Championships with a gold, three silvers, and three bronzes. The Lingers were overall Luge World Cup men's doubles champions in 2011-12 and scored 15 World Cup race victories. In 2005, he broke his leg in a crash, but the next year at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy won the gold medal in doubles luge. He repeated this feat at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, defeating another team of brothers, Andris and Juris Šics of Latvia.
Albert Mikhailovich Demchenko is a Russian luger who competed from 1992 to 2014. He is currently coaching the Russian luge team. His daughter Victoria Demchenko is also a luger.
Oswald Haselrieder OMRI is an Italian luger of Austrian descent who competed internationally from 1988 to 2010. He achieved success at junior level, taking two bronze medals in singles and a gold in doubles at the World Junior Championships, the latter achieved in partnership with Dietmar Pierhofer. Haselrider and Pierhofer continued to compete together until 1995, when they split up and Haselrieder joined forces with Gerhard Plankensteiner. Haselrieder went on to win the bronze medal in the men's doubles event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin after competing in three previous Winter Olympic Games: in 1992 in the singles event and in doubles in 1998 and 2002. He went on to compete in a fifth Olympics in 2010: he retired soon afterwards after sustaining an injury in training in March of that year.
Kurt Brugger is an Italian luger and coach who competed from 1987 to 2003. Together with Wilfried Huber, he won the men's doubles event at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. He competed in four Winter Olympics: 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1998.
Erin Mullady Hamlin is a four-time Olympian and the first female American luger to medal at any Winter Olympics, as well as the first American of either gender to medal in luge singles competition and the first non-European woman to take an Olympic medal in luge. She took the singles bronze medal in Sochi's 2014 Winter Olympics, something the Associated Press called "a feat that will surely go down as perhaps the greatest moment in USA Luge history".
Samuel "Sam" Edney is a retired Canadian luger who has competed since 2000. Competing in four Winter Olympics.
Natalie Geisenberger is a German luger.
Felix Loch is a German luger and Olympic champion. He has been competing since 1995 and has been on the German national team since 2006. He has won fourteen medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with twelve golds and two silvers. Loch's men's singles win in 2008 made him the youngest world champion ever at 18 years old. He is the youngest Olympic Gold Medalist in men's luge history. As of 2014, Loch is a triple Olympic gold medalist.
The Whistler Sliding Centre is a Canadian bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track located in Whistler, British Columbia, that is 125 km (78 mi) north of Vancouver. The centre is part of the Whistler Blackcomb resort, which comprises two ski mountains separated by Fitzsimmons Creek. Located on the lowermost slope of the northern mountain, Whistler Sliding Centre hosted the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton competitions for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The doubles luge event at the 2010 Winter Olympics was held on 17 February at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, British Columbia. Twenty teams participated. Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, the defending Olympic and European champions,. won the gold medal. The silver medal was also won by a pair of brothers, Andris and Juris Šics of Latvia. Germans Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch clinched the bronze medal after edging out Italians Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber, who were in third place after the first run.
Tonga sent a delegation to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia from 7–23 February 2014. This was the Pacific island nation's debut at the Winter Olympic Games. The Tongan delegation consisted of one luge athlete, Bruno Banani, who had changed his name in a marketing gimmick to match that of German brand Bruno Banani. In his event, the men's singles, he came in 32nd place out of 39 competitors.
Patrick Rastner is an Italian luger who competed in the men's double event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi as a pair with Ludwig Rieder. The duo placed seventh.
Luge at the 2018 Winter Olympics was held at the Alpensia Sliding Centre near Pyeongchang, South Korea. A total of four luge events were held, between 10 and 15 February 2018.
Bulgaria competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from 9 to 25 February 2018, with 21 competitors in 6 sports.
Anna Berreiter is a German luger. She is two-time Under-23 World Champion and won a silver medal in the sprint event at the 2021 FIL World Luge Championships. Berreiter is the youngest woman to win a Luge World Cup race and won 2 World Cup singles races in her rookie season.
Max Langenhan 
Verena Hofer 
Russia 
Romania